An unidentified virus

Two hours ago, Altan had dropped her off at home, but she was still smiling at the thought of him. The smell of his perfume and his touch still held her close. A noise from the window broke her train of thought and she snapped out of it.

Even this weather is not known nowadays. No one knows when they change, she said angrily to herself and got up and slammed the window shut. She walked over to her desk and sat down, trying to regain her focus. The sound of rain tapping against the window was soothing, but it also made her feel uneasy.

She looked at the clock and realized that she had been lost in thought for over an hour. She had work to do, but her mind was still wandering back to him. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind. She opened her laptop and started typing, but her thoughts kept drifting her back to Altan.

Along with the thought of him, she also thought of her car. She patted her head lightly and got the phone, seeing that he still hadn't read her message. She thought of calling him and asking about the car, maybe she was looking for an excuse to talk to him, but then she hung up the phone with a thought.

She knew that she had to see him again soon, and she couldn't wait to feel his touch and smell his perfume once more. With a smile on her face, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the possibilities that lay ahead with Altan. A dream of the future that she would share with him would never be like any other. They were meant to be together for the rest of their lives, destined to rule over their own kingdoms as rulers who had ruled before them. There was a world where no one could stop them, not even the most powerful among them.

In the night she did not know when her eye was struck and she was lost in the valleys of sleep. This valley was not a fairyland but hell. When she was awake inside her dream there was no sun or moon, just blackness and silence. She always heard a noise. A scream in the distance and laughter in her ears – that made her want to run, flee to escape the horrors that lay beyond. The demons that chased after her.

She sat up with a jolt, this strange dream had gripped her. She closed her eyes and tried to remember it again, but she did not remember anything except some pieces as if someone wanted to tell her something through a dream. Or maybe there was a puzzle someone wanted her to solve. She tried to remember again and all she could remember was that someone was giving her blood to drink, whether human or animal, she didn't know.

She had a very strange smell coming from her. She smells like a dog as if she had killed a dream animal with her bare hands. But the hands were clean, there was no trace of blood and not even an animal was lying dead. She went to the washroom smelling her clothes. She saw a wound on her neck. Only a mark was left. A sign that never goes away.

She started rubbing herself clean but the smell was not going away, "It didn’t work. It doesn’t work," she muttered and came out of the washroom, sprayed perfume one after another. She wasted 4 bottles on herself but to no avail.

[Phone rings]

She’d been standing in front of her bedroom mirror, brushing her hair, when her phone buzzed on the countertop beside the table. She glanced over the phone call where an unknown number was written in bold black ink across the screen.

"Ms. Jasper," someone's voice appeared from the other side of the phone.

"Yes, I am speaking."

"Your car arrived at the garage this morning. You can pick it up after two days."

[Car horn]

She removed the curtain from the window and saw that Altan was waiting for her downstairs in a police uniform.

"Ok I'll see," she hung up the phone and anxiously looked around for something.

[Horn]

As soon as she heard the sound of the horn again. she almost ran down the stairs but keeping herself normal said, "you didn't need to come here early morning, I would have arranged something."

"If the COME is silent in your words, then you should directly order your man, I'll be happy to serve you miss Esen Jasper," he said and opened the door for her, but she ignored his words and sat in the car.

"Belt," this time again Altan reached out and wanted to put on the belt, but she immediately stopped his hand and put on the belt herself.

"Looks like you have bathed in perfume today," Altan said, hiding his smile.

"We are getting late, Altan O'Connor."

"It's okay you will gradually get used to it," he thought to himself and drove off.

"Why are you with him today? Where is your car?" As soon as they reach the police station, Emily questions Esen, a girl with long blond hair and light green eyes.

"What happened in the Nagosia murder case?" She asked, ignoring Emily's question.

Emily Jackson was Esen Jasper's childhood friend, both studied in the same school and joined the police force together.

"No report yet."

"And the case of Mrs. Matthew's daughter?" She asked again while looking at her picture carefully.

"A team has been appointed and the case is still being worked on. I think she would have a boyfriend," Emily answered, guessing herself.

Esen gave her a silent look and again got busy looking at the picture.

Understanding the meaning of her eyes, Emily explained her point immediately that, "there might be a love scene. Now look, she used to leave home for college but did not go. If she made a false pretext of her mother's death, she got a long leave, so she did that. Mrs. Matthew may be against this relationship. Otherwise, who kills her mother while alive. If there had been a kidnapping, there would have been a ransom call, but that too did not come."

"I think, Rather, no, no I am one hundred and one percent sure that she would have run off and married that guy. Wow, Emily Jackson, wow," clapping in the air, she applauded her own wisdom.

"It's serious Emily," Esen regretted her short-sightedness and brought the picture close to her eyes.

She went silent.

"Are you learning her facial features?" Emily asked Esen again who is looking at the picture carefully.

"This tattoo, I've seen it somewhere," she muttered, placing the picture on the table.

"It was on the hand of yesterday's dead body that was found in the Nagosia forest," Altan said, glancing at the picture and placing the coffee mug in front of her.

"How did you see this tattoo so easily in the picture?" Emily looked at Altan in surprise.

He just smiled at her question.

"How can you say so confidently?" Esen asked Altan.

"Because, I believe, I did. Yes, it was hidden in her wounds but she had the same tattoo," he replied, confidently.

"Where are you going now?" Emily asked in surprise.

"Hospital," Esen said, almost running outside.

"Wait, I'm also coming with you," Emily said, picking up the coffee mug brought by Altan and followed her.

"Stop messing with your IV."

"This IV itches."

"I'm tired of lying here in this stupid bed."

"Have you heard the sounds last night?"

"Like?"

"Like talking in a strange loud voice, crying, and....

And?"

"Howling—I'm pretty sure this place is haunted."

"Haunted?" Everyone Laughs at him.

Esen and Emily stopped at the sound of some patients coming from a room in the hospital. But apparently they were busy reading something on a nameplate.

Dr. Boris Jasper

Pathologist, MD, Ph.D

"Your father is on the ward round Esen," seeing her standing there, a passing doctor told her, and while putting his hand on his nose, he said, "so much perfume."

"I want the postmortem report of the dead body, which was brought here yesterday."

"This way," the doctor took them both into another room where another doctor was looking at something through a microscope. The girl's body was lying on a stretcher nearby. As soon as they entered the room, Esen and Emily felt very cold, they must have increased the temperature of the room due to the presence of the corpse.

"Did you find anything Dr. Smith?" Esen questioned, looking at the corpse.

"Not much, but I think this little information will be useful for you to solve the case," he said while looking at something on the computer.

"She has been dead for about a week, her body is covered with animal claw marks, and her face has been chemically burned, that too after her death," said Dr. Smith, looking into Esen's eyes.

"With chemicals? After death? But why? I mean she was dead then why did they torture a dead body?" Her eyebrows raised and mouth opened in shock.

"For erasing identity, a face is a person's first identity. Finding faces from names is difficult but finding names from faces is very easy. And even easier in the virtual world. Anyway, one thing is even more shocking," Dr. Smith said.

"What?" Esen asked, two lines appeared on her forehead.

"Virus—An unknown virus has also been found in her body."

"Also from her body, means?" Emily asked.

"It means that this is the third case in which that virus has been detected. But nothing can be said about its effect on the body or the mind."

"Did you find out about them from their family members?"

"Yes, on asking the relatives of these dead bodies, they said that they start smelling like dogs from their own body and they suffer from depression and panic attacks," Dr. Smith replied while checking the reports.

"Dog-like smell," on this Esen unknowingly pulled her feet together, cleared her throat and sat straight.

"But the strange thing is that only they say about this dog-smelling thing. While the surrounding people denied it," he continued.

Esen recalled that Mrs. Matthew had mentioned the same symptoms before her daughter, Faryal disappeared.

"I want her DNA reports too," she said while pointing to the dead body.

"Well I will do it. But I want this body for some research work," said Dr. Smith.

"A missing report has also been filed in the police station, so legal action will be taken to keep the body. And most importantly her mother, I mean whoever is her family member you will take permission from them, then the official letter will be issued and then—"

While interrupting Esen's talk, Dr. Smith said that, "don't worry about the official letter, it will be issued. Since the first two bodies related to this case are being researched in different labs, it is easy to get the letter. As far as the permission of their family members," he stopped for a while and then continued his talk, "so you should also try to convince them because this is a deadly virus whose origin is unknown. Where it came from. How it is spreading. Who is behind it? No one knows. But finding a cure is very important."

Esen just nodded her head slightly in response and came out of the room after taking a look at the body.

"What happened? Why are you so worried?" Emily caresses Esen's arm and tries to comfort her, "don't worry, everything will be fine."

The dog-smelling thing still stuck in her mind, she smiled hard at Emily's words that made her teeth show white and her eyes squinty she said, with worry band on her forehead, “hopefully, but I really don't know what to do with this thing" she stick out her tongue a bit chewing on her own lips. Her face looks a little pale under her dark hair.